Founder Files
Clean Skincare· New York, USA · Updated 14 May 2026

Ling Chan

A pioneering Chinese-American facialist who opened the Ling Skincare studio in New York in 1984, integrating Eastern herbal traditions with Western clinical skincare two decades before East-meets-West became a marketing trope, and built her own product line off treatment-room results.

"Skincare results live in the studio first, then the bottle."

Ling Chan
Background

Ling Chan opened her first New York skincare studio in 1984, bringing a then-unusual integration of traditional Chinese herbal techniques with Western clinical facials. Her treatment-led approach — the spa and oxygen facials, the Facebar express lifts — built a long-running celebrity and editorial clientele.

Her own product line grew out of the treatment room, with formulas refined over years of one-on-one work before being bottled. The line has remained tightly distributed and reputationally led rather than scaled aggressively.

Ling continues to operate her New York practice and oversee the brand, which is widely cited as one of the original East-meets-West clean facialist brands in the US market.

Philosophy

Eastern traditions integrated as method, not garnish.

Treatment-first formulation — every product earned its place on the shelf in the studio first.

Career timeline
  • 1984
    Opens first New York skincare studio
  • 2010s
    Launches Facebar express-treatment concept in NY
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